Revolution Rickshaws at 432 W. 31st street.

Two cycle vans with City Harvest lime-green logos turn quietly into a lot as exhaust-belching trucks rumble past on their way to the Lincoln Tunnel.

The three-wheelers are returning for the night to the Revolution Rickshaws garage, where company founder Gregg Zukowski keeps his fleet of 22 pedal-powered vehicles.

The trikes, as he calls them, are used as cargo vans, as well as pedicabs and even moving promotional billboards. With them, Revolution Rickshaw aims to bring more efficient and greener transport alternatives to city businesses and residents.

“From the first day, I realized that this brought all my interests together,” said Zukowski, 36, who founded the business in 2005. “I realized that I could invest a lot of my life and time and energy into creating an eco-positive, sustainable, profitable business.”

From the moment he started riding in 2003, Zukowski said he knew he wanted to make a mark in the pedicab business.

In 2004, after renting a pedicab for a year, Zukowski bought his own trike. In 2005, he bought 14 more and opened a pedicab rental company. He later expanded by offering courier services and leasing cargo vans to organizations like City Harvest and small retailers.

His trikes’ chassis are built to interchangeably carry cargo, billboards or seats for riders.

The pedicab rentals are the cornerstone of the business, with drivers paying $220 a week.

“I like the freedom,” said Johnnie T. Sollitto, 34, a Red Hook, Brooklyn, screenwriter who’d rented a pedicab from Revolution Rickshaws for nearly three years, working the theater crowds. Sollitto now owns a pedicab.Zukowski, the U.S. sales agent for the British company that manufactures the pedal-powered vehicles, Cycles Maximus, has won over business clients, as well.

In 2006, he launched a courier service that caters to bakeries and small retail establishments with light cargo delivery needs.

“We call them to get it there faster and cheaper,” said Sara Weeks Dima, special projects manager at City Bakery in Union Square. “They don’t get stuck in city traffic the way traditional vans will.”

Revolution Rickshaws also teams up with companies on promotions, with riders towing six-foot billboards. The company’s first client — Sambazon, a maker of a Brazilian fruit beverage — arranged to give passersby complementary pedicab rides and beverage samples outside the Javits Center, where Sambazon was participating in a food show.

Deciding on the number of trikes to start the business was tricky, Zukowski said. Pressure to limit the number of pedicabs in the city was mounting at the time he launched the company, and Zukowski feared his business could be shut down. (City efforts to regulate pedicabs are now tied up in the courts.)

Despite the uncertainty, Zukowski forged ahead. He financed the launch with a $100,000 loan from his family. That covered the cost of 14 trikes, rent on a garage and miscellaneous startup essentials, such as lockers, telecom equipment and accounting software.

Like many entrepreneurs these days, Zukowski worries about the recession, particularly since many of his customers service the financial industry.

Despite the shaky business environment, Zukowski made around $300,000 in revenues in 2008, up from $220,000 in 2007, but still insufficient to cover expenses.

“We were more profitable in the beginning,” said Zukowski, when rent was lower, equipment was new and there were no full-time employees.

Payroll is the company’s biggest expense, eating up more than half of revenues. The company employs a marketing director, advertising and promotions director, operations director, art director, controller and four to five couriers. It also has a part-time mechanic.

Zukowski said he’s watching costs carefully and will scale back if needed to bring the company into the black.

“I have to look at where each dollar is going and make sure that it’s producing,” he said.

With the economy squeezing potential customers, he knows turning a profit this year is unlikely. He’s hoping to find investors who will keep the company going until better days might come.

“The stark reality,” he said, “is that it’s a very challenging environment in which to succeed.”